Potty Training 101

It was literally a scene from an old 80s movie and one of my all time favorites. I stood there for a moment in disbelief at what had just occurred, but the realization hit me. This wasn’t a candy bar it was indeed, “doody!” to quote the words from Caddyshack.

As most of you are aware, at least if you follow me on Facebook, I am potty training Davey. I’m not going into it as hardcore as I have been with other things. He’s 18 months old and doesn’t completely comprehend the whole using the potty scenario, but in light of recent events including the previously blogged about episode of pooping on my parent’s floor, I decided to give it a go. Hey, should he become potty trained before I have my next child, then rock on!

Davey’s really good at understanding when I ask him if he needs to go potty. He can’t say the word, but he will point to the bathroom door and pull down his pants and training pants before sitting on the potty. He’s even managed to poop one time in the potty. Of course that was two weeks ago and since that point, I haven’t even gotten a drop of a tinkle out of him.

I ask him every so often if he needs to go potty and he’ll run to the bathroom, but won’t give me a deposit. When I see him start to squat as if to poop, then I immediately take him into the bathroom. One of two things usually occurs. A- he’s already pooped and I’ve missed the opportunity to get him on the toilet or B- he sucks it back in and saves it for a later time when I’m not watching him squat. It’s frustrating, but I also know it’s not going to be an easy process.

At night, before putting him in his bathtub, I always ask him if he needs potty. And most every night, he points at the potty, sits on, smiles, grabs a book, or kicks his feet around. A few minutes later, he gets up and the potty is dry. Last week, I did the exact same routine with him. I explained the importance of the potty and asked him if he needed to go. He shook his head “no”, so I put him in the bath.

Davey’s not much of one to sit, not even in the bath. He’s constantly moving and standing and I’m constantly spending my night getting drenched as I sit him down in the water. Some nights, I actually just let him stand. I’m right beside him, so I’ll catch him should something happen.

Last week, Davey was standing as he normally does, but this time he threw down his toys and just stood there for a minute. I looked at him and could see that he was contemplating something. He pointed at me and grunted, but I’m not much for really understanding my son’s grunts. Little did I know, that he wasn’t really pointing at me, but was instead pointing at the toilet, which I was using as a chair while watching him take a bath.

After a few seconds of telling him “mommy doesn’t understand what you’re saying”, I watched as he appeared to be holding his breath and his face became red. His knees started bending slowly and before it registered with me that he was trying to push a poop out, one actually came out into the water!

I was horrified!

“Davey, stop!” I screamed as I jerked him from the tub and flipped up the toilet lid and plunked him down on it.

He began crying and holding tightly to my neck. Poor little guy, I guess he thought he was going to fall in. I kept him there for a few moments hoping that if he had another poop then it would come out now, but nothing else came.

I cleaned him up and then stared down at the bathwater. There was what looked like a little Baby Ruth just floating around. I almost wanted to leave it. How was I going to get this out? I couldn’t let it run down the drain, could it? So I grabbed some toilet paper, moaned for a few seconds before reaching into the bathwater to pull out the doody. Davey just looked at me smiling. I had to take him into our bathroom to give him a bath.

I’ve been told this is a normal occurrence for little boys especially when trying to potty train them. I hope it’s a normal ONE TIME occurrence, as I’m definitely not interested in cleaning poopy out of bath water. No one told me it would be like this! 🙂

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One thought on “Potty Training 101”

Judy

Be glad you have the invention of disposable diapers. I remember having to stand over the toilet shaking off or swishing off “doody” from cloth diapers. Then having to wash loads of diapers in a wringer washer and hang them on the line. Both of my girls were potty trained daytime by two and night-time soon after. With my second child I was able to have disposable diapers which was a rare thing because they were very expensive. I mostly used them on church days and when we were visiting friends and family. I am glad for the invention of the disposable diapers and training pants. I don’t know how it is with a boy but I’m told it is a bit harder to train them. Sounds like you are doing a great job. Training is more training yourself to see the signs and getting him there and praising him for a good job. It will happen when it is time. Keep up the good work!! =)
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